Zumiez Best Foot Forward Am Contest Series presented by Bones Bearings is back for its 6th year and coming to a town near you! The nation’s longest Am skateboard contest series will hit 19 cities in 2012, offering a chance for Ams from across the country to get recognized.

The series starts on May 9th in Milwaukee, WI, with six additional renegade stops taking place in Indianapolis, IN on May 11th, Atlanta, GA on May 13th, Kansas City, KS on May 16th, Tulsa, OK on May 18th, Phoenix, AZ on May 21st, Las Vegas, NV on May 23rd, and then meets up with all 12 stops of the Zumiez Couch Tour.

The top amateur skater from each of the 19 contest stops will get an all expense paid trip to the Zumiez Couch Tour’s final stop in Bloomington, MN, to compete in the Zumiez Best Foot Forward Finals on June 26th, 2012. The Top 3 finalists will win a trip to Los Angeles to film at famous skate spots, visit top brands’ private skateparks and compete in the Hometown Heroes Finals at Summer X Games 18, and receive a 1-year sponsorship from Bones Bearings.

The Zumiez Best Foot Forward Finals took over Couch Tour at the final location. Seventeen of the United States' best and brightest skateboarders battled for the top spots in Minneapolis. Shredders from across the land put on quite a show on the Zumiez course. The competition was stiff and even with the heat index topping out at 108 degrees, these skilled rippers had nothing but love for skateboarding.

The top dudes in the nation took no prisoners. Dudes like Julian Christianson, Pip Meranto. Miles Silvas, Dominique Goings and Antonio Massey were out for the kill. These monsters ripped and tore like there was no tomorrow. Making it into third place was Antonio with a cab to back lip down the hubba and a bunch of insane flips down the big gap. Storming into second was Miles Silvas. His shredding madness included a bigspin front board and a kickflip back lip down the rail. Taking the cake was Julian Christiansonof Denver. Julian made short work of the course with tricks like switch noseblunts, switch tail 270 out and kickflip front 50s down the rail.

We'll see Antonio, Miles and Julian down in Los Angeles in a couple weeks for the Hometown Heroes Finals!

It's been a long, fruitful summer of madness. As the final stop on the Zumiez Couch Tour rolls into the biggest mall in America, the scene was set in Minneapolis for a finale of epic proportions.

The skateboard course was assembled and laced together with precision. And the heat was truthfully unbearable. The ramps, although magnificent in their construction, were so hot that they were in threat of certain destruction by spontaneous combustion.

With the Zumiez Best Foot Forward contest underway, the local qualifier went off with the usual minor injuries: a tweaked ankle here, a broken wrist there... But the heat was blistering! Overheated skateboarders clamored for water, shade or any kind of reprieve from this Minneapolis heat wave.

The finals of the local Twin Cities segment went like this: Third place went to Jace Torkelson, who rocked mean gap tricks and a bit of tranny wizardry for the hundreds of onlooking skate-rats in the audience. Second went to Dan Coe, who pulled off a beautiful back tail bigspin out on the handrail. Jack Olson sealed up the first place spot and advanced on to the BFF Finals.

Rocking and rolling like a rolling stone, or at least a Blues Brother, the Zumiez Best Foot Forward contest hit Chicago. Chicagoland and its history means big business. And these shredders coming out to represent the Windy City mean business as well.

The Zumiez BFF contest went down with authority. Serving up gnar all day were the finalists, Shawn Turner and Dustin Blauvelt. Killing it and coming in third was Justin Smolenski, who ripped switch and regs, putting in work on the ledges and handrail.

Taking second place honors was Joey Petrucci, who took to the euro-gap like a fish to water. Making a smoking entrance and not letting up all day, Joey rocked the house in a big way. He landed all kinds of flip tricks up and down this monster of a gap.

And without a doubt, the standout of the day was Dustin Blauvelt. Ripping the handrail, hubbas and transition sections alike, Dustin killed everything in his path. Dustin, not exactly a local, made the trek all the way from Robocop’s hometown of Detroit.

There are some familiar faces from last year's Finals and a handful of new ones. No doubt that the judges will have an extraordinarily difficult time trying to figure who's shralping the hardest. All these guys are serious shredders!

Only two more stops left! We're just outside the Windy City today in Aurora, waiting for the shralpers to arrive. The weather is perfect and without a doubt, the skating will be just as proper. Shredders will arrive from all over the Chicagoland area to get their opportunity to take their skills to the Zumiez Best Foot Forward Finals in Minneapolis on Friday.

Miles Canevello took the top honors last year with John "Ozzy" Oskvarek hot on his trail. Every year there's a new crop rising up but the older guys keep getting better. No matter who shows up, the riders have been enjoying the new course and the skating has gotten gnarlier than ever before.

Watch the live stream over at Zumiez Couch Tour's Website starting at Noon Central time.

Friday in Minneapolis is the final event. After the qualifier competition, the Zumiez Best Foot Forward Finals are popping off.

All three finalists from the Zumiez Best Foot Forward Finals contest will be flown to compete in the Hometown Heroes Finals at Summer X Games 17 in Los Angeles, CA. All three will also be put on the BONES WHEELS flow team for a year. The overall winner from the Zumiez Best Foot Forward Finals in Minneapolis will film a part for the BONES WHEELS AM video!

The overall winner also gets a $500* Zumiez Gift Card, $300* in Bones gear, and loads of product from Zumiez Couch Tour partners! 2nd and 3rd place finishers also get hundreds of dollars* in prizing!*Retail Value

The top 3 from the Zumiez Best Foot Forward Finals in Minneapolis will be flown to skate in the Hometown Heroes contest at Summer X Games 17 in Los Angeles, CA.

Zumiez Best Foot Forward contest rocked through the New Jersey turnpike and into Livingston with power and aggression on this beautiful Sunday in June. There would be quite a few transient skaters as well. We saw dudes coming in from New York and Pennsylvania to join the Garden State locals. The heat pressured on and the living dead came out of the cracks in the pavement to witness these shredders throw down in all manners of skateboard heavy-hitting.

The contenders for today's BFF top-notch honors were many, but there were just a couple that towered above the rest. John Tuck scooped up third place and set a standard of excellence.

Second place was Julian Heller. Julian killed the course with his homeboy John Tuck. They ripped out smooth flip to front boards and bs smith grinds, second to none. Shane Colville won the whole shebang taking home a huge Zumiez prize pack and scooping up that all-expenses paid trip to the finals in Minnesota. Shane rocked tricks like a front 180 to switch 50-50 and front pop shove-it down the handrail launching him into the first place slot.

In the City of Brotherly Love, the shredders bring their Best Feet out to the BFF event. Formerly the nation's capital, Philadelphia turns out to be the capital of shredding as the BFF crew descended upon its huddled and sweaty masses. Zumiez brings the heat, as does mother nature. With the humidity escalating like a stairway to heaven, the skaters had plenty to deal with. The contest got underway without a hitch.

In a city with such a deep historical bag of wonder, Ben Franklin himself would be proud to see the inventiveness these young upstarts would come bring. With names like Stevie Williams, Ricky Oyola, Chris Cole and Bam Margera calling this city home, you know the shredding coming out of this city would be bonkers.

Killing the quarterpipes and masonite like men possessed by a supernatural force, these East Coast shredders looked like a frenzy of tornado inspired mad-men. The rail chomping and flip tricks galore during the practice rounds were truly a sight to behold.

The finals went off with Julian Heller and Donny Hixon killing everything in their path. First place honors went to Maurio McCoy, second place went to Shane Colville and rounding out third was Kyle Knoblauch. We saw these dudes drop everything from kickflip front boards down the handrail to bigflips up the euro-gap. Did we mention the bigflip to front board stomped down the handrail? It took the audience by storm.

Baltimore becomes the sight of a BFF gnarfest not to be matched. At the Zumiez Couch Tour, we fall upon many, many shredders who make the skatepark course rock and roll to their whims.

As the Baltimore sun wakes up in the morning sky, we open up on an event in this historic city to rival that of any of its past legacies. The Zumiez Couch Tour comes to an East coast city of monumental preparations. The Baltimore residents and party-goers of White Marsh Mall are sure to get what they came for: good times, great music and top-notch skateboarding.

Home to skateboarding greats like Bucky Lasek, it's no doubt that the maneuvers and talent that were on display at the Zumiez Best Foot Forward contest were off the charts. We saw last year's winner Ian Smith make the finals with ease, killing it with a consistency and style that was nothing short of marvelous. The sun shining and heat escalating like a rocket to the moon, the contestants found themselves in the middle of a bonafide heat wave.

All kinds of serious schralping went down. We saw wallrides and buttslides, feeble grinds and lip slides, high-flying tranny skills and tech-dog ledge madness. Some manny madness along with the best gap and drop maneuvers out there.

Third place goes to Jimmy Loebach. Second went to Antonio Massey, who rocked a switch FS 360 down the big gap with mad authority. Coming out on top of the BFF finals was Ian with flip tricks like switch heels, switch flips and a switch barley grind down the rail that made it a no-brainer for this now two-time BFF champ.